On November 9, 2015, the US Court of Appeals refused the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Amnesty International requests for rehearing en banc of the court’s Aug. 18, 2015 decision in the Conflict Minerals Rule litigation. The request for rehearing is with regard to whether compelling companies to describe products as having “not been found to be DRC conflict free” violates the First Amendment.

However, the refusal by the Court doesn’t settle the issue and the saga continues. There are still several options available to the SEC and there is a lot of speculation underway as to what happens next. For example, the SEC could file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. We’ll need to let the dust settle and look to see what the SEC does next.

The ruling itself is very briefly, only really saying “the petitions be denied”.

Contact ECD Compliance, for additional information and services to assess your environmental product compliance requirements, keep you up to date on the impact to your products and markets and to implement compliance procedures.